Tell me about the Deluxe Dining Plan

[MsPeggySue911]

Hi. I am new here. I just wanted to ask you guys opinion on the Deluxe Dining Plan. Have you ever used it? Did you love it? Was it too much food? Did you do 2 or 3 sit down meals a day?

I plan on trying it NEXT fall when just my husband and myself go back to Disney but on my family vacation THIS fall I was considering getting it for the whole family.

I know my husband and myself wouldn't mind using all the credits for sit down meals but I am not sure how the kids would enjoy 3 sit down meals a day. They are tweens and teens and love to eat but none of us eat a lot.

I know we wouldn't eat an app, entree and a dessert. We would probably share one or two apps, have our own entree then get a dessert to have just a few bites.

But you can't pay out of pocket for 3 sit down meals at most of these places ($45 buffets, etc), even without an app, for less than you can pay for the difference in free DDP upgraded to Deluxe. ($34 a day per person)

So I am just curious who here and tried it and what your thoughts on it were/are.

If you have done it, how did you use it and would you do it again?

We have only ever had the QSDP and this trip we have coming up we got the free DDP. SO I would only be upgrading to Deluxe and not paying full price for it. But there are 5 of us, so to upgrade would cost almost $200 a day.

My choice is either to FLY and not get the Deluxe or DRIVE and get the Deluxe. I have $1500 to use as I please, but with 3 kids in the car I am leaning towards just flying and keeping the DDP we already have.

Thoughts?

[bennette]

Loved the deluxe for just my husband and I on a thoughtfully planned trip during the cool season with a sit down breakfast every morning, a signature dinner every night, and snacks in between.

We don't do counter service often--only twice on that trip. We did use snack credits to buy the equivalent of a full meal at our hotel and Sunshine Seasons in Epcot, where you are more free to pick and choose. I would do it again if it fit a particular trip.

On subsequent trips I've usually been offsite, at a villa, or there during Food and Wine, which I will always choose to frquent over the dining plan. Haven't necessarily missed the plan; I always eat well when I'm there one way or the other (I budget more for food than some).

I can't really imagine getting three kids to agree to that many sit down meals. Or driving if I could fly. :0

Someone will be along shortly to tally up the cost if gratuities for you, in addition to the upgrade costs.

[MsPeggySue911]

Speaking of tips...Is talking about tips banned on this forum? I can't find any forum rules that specifies what you are not suppose to talk about. On one of the other boards you can't talk about tipping.

I know if we did 3 table service meals a day for 5 Disney adults the tips would be pretty high. I thought about that too.

[bennette]

Community rules are in this forum for new members; scroll down to the "show all" thread for community policies.

If you search old threads, you may see the occasional disagreement about tipping housekeeping; also on the best way to figure a tip depending on what kind of dining plan or discount you're using but the topic itself is definitely not forbidden!

[danyoung]

Speaking of tips...Is talking about tips banned on this forum? I can't find any forum rules that specifies what you are not suppose to talk about. On one of the other boards you can't talk about tipping.

I can't imagine why you couldn't talk about tipping. What do you want to know?

[3Princesses1Prince]

I can't imagine why you couldn't talk about tipping. What do you want to know?

On another site they limit tipping questions to a "Tipping Thread" because people get all bent out of shape.

[MsPeggySue911]

I didn't have a specific tipping question but on the other board you can't discuss tipping at all. It is against the board rules. They have a general tipping thread that is not really discussing tipping per se. But say for instance someone came on and asked "Do you tip 18% at buffets?" The thread would be closed and locked. That's why I asked if it could be discussed here because I didn't know of any specific rules over here. Like no politics or religion, etc. I did read through this board's rules but didn't see any forbidden subjects over here.

[danyoung]

I've been involved with many threads over the years about tipping, but of waitstaff and of housekeeping. Lots of different opinions, which makes for a lively discussion!

[MsPeggySue911]

I would like to read some threads where ppl discussed tipping. Like how much to tip and whether or not to tip, etc.

[Drince88]

You can find them by using the search function. For all threads where tipping is mentioned - just type that in the search box at the top of this page. If you want to limit the forum you're looking in, click the 'advanced search' link right below the search box first.

You could also search "Deluxe" in the "Good Eats" forum (thereby eliminating most of the references to deluxe resorts) to see if there have been other discussions about the Deluxe Dining Plan!

[MsPeggySue911]

Thanks Cathy I am going to try that now.

[Skippydoo]

I have done the Platinum/Deluxe 3 times and I think it works for us because we are foodies who love Signature Dining and all the perks. I can tell you on the Deluxe plan you will not go hungry. There's alot of food and it depends on how you use your plan.

However, if I had to choose between Deluxe and flying over driving... I would probably go with flying. You get there so much faster and I know that a long car ride with kids can be... long. So get there quicker and enjoy all things to do.

[currence]

If you already have the regular dining plan for free, you may find that it is plenty of food. When we were on that plan, we used our snack credit to have a breakfast pastry, our quick service credit for lunch, and then had a big sit-down dinner (okay, we sometimes switched lunch and dinner, but you get the point). Two of the meals were quick which gave us time to enjoy the bigger meals, and since my parents eat like birds, they would sometimes split meals which let us use the extra credits to eat at 2-credit locations.

I cannot imagine trying to sit down for meals three times per day if I was also trying to tour the parks.

I did do the deluxe plan on my last trip, but that was primarily because I had to split the reservation anyway and I added the deluxe to the first night of our stay. That gave us 3 meals over 2 days, which was manageable. Since the free dining would be affected if you did something like that, I would not recommend it for your trip. It's also my understanding that they may have closed or restricted this loophole.

I have also done the Platinum plan which was nothing BUT eating and entertainment. That trip was amazing but we spent hours eating each day which might have frustrated people who would rather be in the parks having fun.

[3Princesses1Prince]

I think we would actually do it, especially during free dining. We enjoyed a number of 2 credit meals like Hoop Dee Doo and breakfast in the castle. We want to try some signatures we missed out on last time. You don't have to eat 3 TS per day. You can do signatures or dinner shows, you can throw in some CS.... I think as long as you use 2/3 of your credits towards TS meals, you should be good.